The alpha 8 protect proc.., p.12
The Alpha 8: Protect. Procreate. Prevail., page 12
You know I will, Jesse, Kristina replied. Don’t worry. Focus on finding those damn coyotes, and I’ll protect everyone here.
It made me feel a bit uneasy that I couldn’t hug and kiss my omegas before I had to leave, but I didn’t have the time to do any of that. Kiri, Leo, Kahn, and Thomas were in danger, and I knew I had to reach them before the werecoyotes did.
Kiri was feisty and strong, and she didn’t often let things get to her, so the fact that she was on the verge of tears said a lot about the situation. She was scared for her life, they all were, and I knew I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if anything happened to them.
The only issue was that they had taken anosmiacs before they left for their run, so I couldn’t rely on their scent like I normally did. I assumed the werecoyotes had also done the same thing, because I couldn’t smell them, either.
Thomas? I asked as we reached the trees. Where are you guys? Can you give me anything to help us map out your location?
Uh… Thomas trailed off for a moment, and I could just imagine him frantically looking around. We’re literally in the middle of the forest. There’s… Uh… There’s a small tower of gray boulders off to the right. But I can’t say we’ll be able to stay here for too long.
Where are the coyotes right now? I demanded.
I think we lost them, Kahn panted. But I can sense that they’re still around here somewhere. We’ll stay where we are, but if we have to run, then I’ll let you know.
That’s fine, just do what you have to do. I nodded my wolfy head. Kiri, are you okay?
Yeah, I’m… I’m okay, she said somewhat convincingly. I’m sorry, Jesse. They just came out of nowhere, so it freaked me out.
There’s no reason to apologize, I told her. We’re coming to find you, okay? Just stay together, and make sure you have all sides covered.
A rumbling growl formed in Benji’s throat, and I knew it was because Kiri was in danger.
Copy that, Alpha, Leo replied.
Without a shifter scent to follow, we could have been running around in circles before we came across the betas. So instead of tracing their scents like I normally would, I had to go down a different route. I had to use my ears and eyes, and I needed to pay close attention to the feral, animal scents that coated the forest.
That was going to be extremely difficult, given how many animals inhabited the woods, but if I knew of a rough direction my betas traveled in, then I could essentially use my nose and ears to take me the rest of the way.
I skidded to a stop in order to make sense of my whereabouts. Brenden and Benji stood right beside me, but they continued to survey the area as I focused on the ground. If I could spot some potential tracks or paw prints, then I could try and work out whether the tracks were fresh and go on from there.
What’s the plan, Jess? Brenden asked. Do you want us to take different areas of the forest?
I kept the mental communication between just Brenden, Benji, and I, mainly because I didn’t want to distract the others too much. But that didn’t stop them from getting in contact with me if they needed to.
No, not yet, I replied as I kept my eyes trained on the ground. We’re not at home, so we don’t know this forest like the back of our hands. But you guys need to keep an eye on the trees while I try to locate some prints.
Trust me, no one’s getting away without me catching on to them, Benji growled. These werecoyotes have messed with the wrong fucking pack.
Do you think that’s who caused those strange feelings in the car earlier? Brenden asked. I mean, Marco and I didn’t see anything, but it can’t be a coincidence that both of these things have happened in the span of a couple of hours.
No, I know, I sighed. It certainly feels like that. But again, it could have just been the SDD agents keeping note earlier, and the werecoyotes just so happened to be in the same place at the same time. But until we know for certain, I don’t want to write off either of the two groups. Because something is going on, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.
I tried not to think too much about the SDD agents, because I needed to focus on the ground beneath my paws. However, I couldn’t stop my mind from running away with every theory that entered my head.
The first time those strange sensations happened, I was on my way home after visiting the betas in British Columbia. I had left an airport, and I was traveling from one destination to another, so it made sense that the SDD were keeping note of my whereabouts then. I hadn’t felt those feelings before, but I also hadn’t been listed as a “potential threat” before, either.
Maybe that meant more agents had to keep an eye on me, and I couldn’t go about my daily life as normal anymore.
However, there was also nothing stopping the werecoyotes from tracking me down in Oregon, and that could also explain the men who watched me in the airport. They could have been following me since the second I stepped foot off the private plane, and because that area of land wasn’t in my territory, then the coyotes would have been free to roam around without any of my patrol groups catching them.
But there was one thing I hadn’t considered, and I had pretty much put it to the back of my mind as soon as it happened.
Arthur Mordaine had also felt the same sensations when he came to meet me at the cabin. He brushed it off and said it was because he drank mint tea, which wasn’t a huge surprise when it came to Mordaine, but I knew those feelings didn’t come from an herbal beverage.
Again, Aunt Eva didn’t see anything, and she could have easily spotted a human in the distance without even thinking twice about it. So was it the SDD that caused those feelings to arise?
It frustrated me that I didn’t have any answers, but I wasn’t going to remain clueless for long. I was determined to get an explanation, and I was going to do whatever it took to receive that information.
Otherwise, I was going to give myself a headache just from thinking about the various possibilities.
But before my mind could spiral out of control completely, I spotted something delicately pressed between some fallen leaves.
A paw print.
The metacarpal pad was larger than that of a coyote, and the digital pads were also closer together and curved, instead of stacked like the paw of a coyote. It was also much larger than the paws of a regular animal, too, so it had to have belonged to a shifter, and it had to have been Thomas’ print, the only werecat currently in the forest.
The edges of the print were sharp and well-defined, so I knew it was fresh, but he could have made these tracks anywhere between five minutes to an hour ago.
So where were they now?
And why couldn’t I see three other sets of prints beside his?
Look, I said. Thomas was here recently.
Fuck, nice work, Benji replied as he sniffed the ground.
But can you guys see any other prints? I asked. The others would have been right beside Thomas. Or, I mean, they should have been.
I plodded forward with my head close to the ground, and I brushed off every fucking leaf I came across to make sure there was nothing hiding under it.
I came across a few more of Thomas’ prints, and I could tell he had been running from the scuff his paws had made, so at least that gave me a slight indication of the direction he had traveled in.
But he was still on his own.
Jesse, over here! Brenden suddenly shouted.
My beta captain was standing off to my right in between a tight collection of trees, and he had lowered his jet-black body to the ground in order to inspect something.
What have you found? I asked as I carefully made my way over.
Werecoyote prints, he replied. But it was just one coyote. The way they’re positioned makes me want to think that this person was standing completely still, maybe even hiding in the trees. But can you see the slight deformity in the prints?
As I took a closer look, I noticed that the metacarpal pad was thicker and deeper on one side. The digital pads were also slightly off on that side of the paw, and it was the same for all four prints, which gave me the impression that the shifter had applied more weight on that side of their paws.
They were crouching, I said. This werecoyote was probably hiding behind the trees, which could explain why Thomas was running over there. They needed to lose the werecoyotes, so this must have been the plan they created.
Thomas is the fastest, too, so it makes sense, Brenden replied.
Then all of a sudden, Benji’s frantic voice was heard.
Jesse! He yelled. You might want to come and see this!
Benji was standing a few meters away from us, and his desperate tone caused Brenden and I to sprint over there as quickly as we could.
Look, he said with a sigh.
Benji had found a selection of white rocks embedded in the ground, most of which were covered in layers of green moss. But then there was one rock in particular which had a paw print firmly marked on it.
A bloody paw print.
The bloodstain was nowhere near as sharp and clear as that of a print in the ground, but all three of us agreed that it belonged to a werecoyote. Regardless of whether the print belonged to one of my betas, or the new threat in the area, it meant that someone was injured. And depending on how deep the cut was, it could have been the easiest way for us to track them down.
Hey, I said to my group of betas. Did any of you hurt one of your paws?
Yeah, I did, Leo replied. I caught it on the edge of a jagged rock. It stung like a bitch, but it’s all good now.
Okay, well we found one of your prints, I explained. How long ago did you cut it? And how far did you run after that?
I dunno, like, half an hour ago? Leo guessed. It was just as we spotted the werecoyotes, so we’ve kinda been all over the place since then trying to get within earshot of the mental connection, but we didn’t want to lead these assholes straight to your house.
Fuck.
That wasn’t quite the answer I had been hoping for.
But that didn’t mean we weren’t going to find them, and it didn’t mean our threat was going to get to our betas before we did, either.
Are you guys still by the tower of boulders? I asked.
Yeah, we haven’t moved, Thomas replied. We also haven’t seen the coyotes since you got here. But we can hear them, so we know they’re around somewhere.
If they could hear the coyotes, that meant those motherfuckers were nearby, and they could have easily attacked before I had the chance to create a map of the forest in my head. Which made it even more vital that I found my betas before anything could happen to them.
Okay, just keep doing what you’re doing, I ordered. We’re doing our best to find you, but we don’t have much to go on. Just stay together, stay focused, and call out to us if anything happens.
You’ve got it, Jesse, Kahn said.
I couldn’t just rely on the prints to guide us, because they could have taken us anywhere. I was glad we had found them, and it gave us some sort of indication as to what happened, but instead of using my eyes, I had to use my nose and ears.
I used my sense of smell first, and I brushed aside the earthy tones of the forest as I tried to pick up on something more familiar. Coyotes were known for having a terrible odor, and even though I couldn’t work on my betas’ shifter scents, I could go for their natural scents.
I had to divide the scents into two piles, what was old, and what was new. If I focused on the smell of a wild animal that sauntered through these trees last week, then I wasn’t going to get anywhere.
But I did pick up on something somewhat familiar. It was almost like when there was a trash bag in the kitchen that needed to be emptied, and I could smell it from the floor above. It was faint, and I really had to home in on that smell, but it was there.
This way, I said to my beta captains before we continued to stalk through the trees.
Now that I had a scent to follow, I used my hearing to take us the rest of the way.
During my training sessions with my islanders, I’d taught them how to focus on heartbeats if they couldn’t track someone by their scent. Shifters had very unique heartbeats, so it was easy to tell a shifter and a wild animal apart.
But that became difficult when the area of land we were in was so vast and open, so I literally had to block out all of my senses in order to focus on just my hearing alone.
At first, all I could hear were Benji and Brenden’s pounding heart rates, but then I forced them to one side as I picked up on the sounds that ran deeper into the forest.
I heard the rustling of leaves, some sort of small animal was scratching at a tree, and there must have been a stream nearby because I heard the gentle rippling of water.
Every so often, I heard unmistakable sounds, like that of a car engine on a nearby road, and the trickling of water. There was also the call of a bird in the sky from far off in the distance.
But then I heard it.
Just like the scent, the noise was very faint, and it took me a second to really identify the noise, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was a shifter heartbeat.
It sort of reminded me of the orchestra rehearsal from earlier, when the drumsticks lightly brushed off the head of the timpanis. It was such a light sound, but there was no mistaking that noise as soon as I heard it.
A shifter heart rate could be anywhere from one-seventy to two hundred beats per minute, but then it could escalate to two-fifty when we were sprinting. But they were always heavy and fast, regardless of whether the shifter was running or resting.
So for a full minute, as Brenden, Benji, and I walked further into the forest, I counted every single beat.
Two hundred and twenty-one.
Whoever I had picked up on wasn’t sprinting, but they were definitely running faster than normal.
Potentially running laps around my betas.
We need to focus on that sound and that smell, I ordered. We have to find where they’re coming from and follow them.
The most important part about tracking someone down was stealth and the element of surprise. If we darted off into the trees without thinking much about it, the werecoyotes would have heard us coming, and they would have had more than enough time to leave before we got there.
Although time was precious, and I needed to get to my betas as quickly as I could, I also knew I couldn’t act impulsively. We had to be smart and careful, and that was the only way we were going to win.
So, as we silently made our way through the trees, I blocked off every other noise around me and focused on nothing but the heartbeat alone. The louder the noise became, the closer we were to the owner. The watered-down animal scent also became stronger, and it now felt like I was heading downstairs to investigate the unpleasant trash bag in the kitchen.
The timpani drummer in my head applied more pressure to the drumsticks every time I took a step forward. Instead of brushing, the drumsticks were lightly tapping against the head of the timpani.
For several minutes I focused solely on the timpani and the trash bag, and my lips began to curl up into a wolfy grin as the tapping increased even more.
It was quite fitting that there was a drum roll going on in my head, because only two minutes later, after we had been searching the forest for at least thirty minutes, I came across the tower of gray boulders.
And my four betas were perched safely around it.
Jesse! Thomas shouted as we sprinted over to them. Brenden, Benji, oh, my god!
Brenden ran toward Leo and Thomas, whereas Benji sweetly brushed his head against Kiri’s.
I would have subtly teased him about it, but it wasn’t the time to joke around.
I’d save that until we returned to the house.
Are you okay? I asked as I inspected the betas.
No one appeared to be visibly hurt or wounded, they all just seemed relieved to have been found.
We’re fine, Kahn said. It’s the weirdest thing, the werecoyotes knew we were here, but they didn’t even bother to attack. I don’t get it.
Well, they’re still out here somewhere, I growled.
They ran off minutes before you arrived, so you must have spooked them, Kiri replied. But we can show you where they were last seen, if you want?
Yeah, let’s go. I nodded.
The boulders were positioned in the middle of a small clearing, with a curtain of trees all around it. It was a good thing the betas had kept an eye on the werecoyotes, otherwise we would have had to track them down all over again.
Thomas and Leo led the way, and they constantly told me where they had last seen the werecoyotes, and how all seven of the motherfuckers stuck together in a group.
Staying together in a group made them stronger if a fight broke out, but it also made them easier to spot, instead of running and hiding in separate places.
And that was exactly what happened.
Minutes after we’d left the boulders, Brenden shouted out that he had spotted a werecoyote in the distance.
That’s them! Thomas replied as he picked up his pace.
I powered my body to run as fast as I could, and I never took my eyes away from the werecoyotes. My heart was pounding, a continuous growl slipped through my lips, and I knew I had a look of fury in my orange eyes.
All seven werecoyotes had spotted us, and it was clear that we meant business, yet they remained in one place on a grassy slope as they watched us sprint even closer.
This is going to be an easy fight if they don’t even fucking move, Leo snickered.
But I wasn’t sure there was even going to be a fight.
The werecoyotes had the perfect opportunity to attack my betas before we got there, but they didn’t. Kiri also said they had been right behind them when the werecoyotes were first spotted, yet even then they didn’t attack.
Why was that?
My theory was proven correct only thirty seconds later.
Before we could reach the grassy slope, the werecoyotes took off running down the other side of the hill.
Motherfucker! Benji shouted.
We can still catch them! Kahn said with determination.
